Second Skins: Photo Series Featuring Some Very Fashionable Animals

Miguel Vallinas’ series Segunda Pieles or in English, Second Skins is certainly not your run-of-the-mill series of animals being humanized by depicting them in people’s clothes. The Madrid-based photographer takes the concept several notches above the norm with a collection that takes such visuals to a higher level. Vallinas’ approach fully anthropomorphizes his animal subjects. What he cleverly does is create fine nuances, coming-up with human-like traits for each specific species. Second Skins is more of a look into the realm of animals and how they would appear if they were sharply dressed.

In this attempt of Vallinas, female creatures look absolutely chic in their apparel, and the male animals are just drop-dead sophisticated, oozing with sartorial splendor. This is definitely an offbeat take on the garden variety pictures of animals dressed as humans. In Second Skins, the animals seem to take on specific personalities, assuming their own characters. Vallinas seems to have taken the time and inclination to blend the animal and human forms well enough so they morph really well, not looking a bit awkward in the series.

Vallinas, an advertising and industrial photographer patiently did the masterful retouching, lighting and overall execution, and took this anthropomorphic project a step further, visualizing what an outfit of each animal might look like if it were actually custom made for each creature.

Second Skins is a work in progress and it includes some 50+ animals whose envisioned personalities seem to be flawlessly matched with their impeccable attire. The end result is surely more human than it is animal. Second Skins is a spin-off project to another collection simply called Pieles, also an ongoing project. In the latter, Vallinas portrays himself in a vast assortment of professions.

I am a freelance photographer who is no stranger to smudged lenses, long hours in front of the computer, heavy camera bags (and the back aches that ensued) and missing lens caps. If you know what I'm talking about, you probably have as much love and passion for photography as I do.